Upper Lee catchment
• Upper Lee • Central Bedfordshire • ID: 4641TH • Level
(32m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 128 views
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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
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You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
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Current Level
1.092 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
1.094 mASD
24h Min
1.091 mASD
Typical Range
1.07 - 1.70
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.77 mASD
23 Sep 2024
Since Apr 2009
Current level is 39% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. Shown with its calibrated 10–90% confidence band. Under evaluation —
not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
River Flow
90 days
Daily mean discharge (m³/s) with the daily min–max band, from the EA Hydrology API. Flow is the volume of water passing the gauge — often a more direct flood signal than level.
Long Term
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 23:45▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 22:45▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 21:30▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 21:00▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady1.092 mASD
23 Aug 18:30▲ +0.1 cm1.092 mASD
23 Aug 18:151.091 mASD
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2009 for the 8 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 4.5 km away).
Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record.
See also the Upper Lee flood history.
Geographic coordinates may reflect the access point for the gauge, and not the precise location in the watercourse that it is taking readings from.
Catchment Character
🌊 Urban & flashyHeavily built-up — rain runs off hard surfaces fast, so levels can spike within hours of heavy rain.
Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how
steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay
catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is
slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right
from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.
The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Baseflow Index
0.87
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
682 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
33%
heavily urbanised
Highest Recorded Flow
9.07 m³/s
22 Sep 2024
Flow-Duration Curve
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
The station is a replacement of the former upstream gauging station, the Upper Lee at Luton Hoo (38013).
More detail
The catchment
A Chalk catchment (with Drift) that is heavily urbanised.
The station
The station is a replacement of the d/s gauging station, the Upper Lee at Luton Hoo (38013). It is a rated section located 400m d/s of the old structure.
How it measures flow
Rated section (using a control section) within an existing channel.
Flow regime
The station is located downstream of the outfall from an ornamental lake (with storage capacity) at Luton Hoo Park. It is also located above a significant discharge from a sewage treatment works. Flows are substantially reduced as a result of groundwater abstractions. The catchment has substantial amounts of urbanisation resulting in rapid run-off and a flashy response. Flow occassionally affected by operation of upstream penstock which is used by the Luton Hoo estate when carrying out maintenance on their ornanmental weir.
The flow record
Insensitive at very low flows. Significant periods of near zero flow.
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Velocity–area
Operating since
2009
Station datum
96.1 mAOD
Flow record
2009–2024 · 15 yrs · 99% complete
Hydrometric area
38
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Lee at Luton East Hyde flooding today?
The current level is 1.09m, which is within the typical range of 1.07 to 1.70m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Luton East Hyde?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 7 days of measurements, updated roughly every 15 minutes.
What is a normal level for the River Lee at Luton East Hyde?
The typical range at this station is 1.07m to 1.70m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.70m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are taken by the Environment Agency gauge roughly every 15 minutes and FloodRadar refreshes its data continuously, so the level shown is normally less than an hour old.
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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
